About Me

Born in the late 60's, Chesy hails from a Welsh mining village with a long name and was pretty glad when he got the Hell out of there. He got into Rock/Metal in about 1980, thanks to a TISWAS related incident (Rainbow video for All Night Long) and thankfully has never looked back.
Chesy often sang solo in the school choir, but thanks to a puberty related incident his voice is now completely bolloxed, although in his own head Paul thinks he sounds like a blend of Coverdale and Dio (R.I.P).
He was brought up on the classics - Deep Purple, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, Rush, Whitesnake and loved melodic rock and the Hair Bands of the 80's. (Nowadays, he has progressed a little and prefers a more technical and/or progressive metal - Dream Theater, Rush, Symphony X, Porcupine Tree, Pain Of Salvation, Spock's Beard. He hates Black and Death Metal (can't stand the grunting) but for some unknown reason loves the magnificent Opeth! He wont stop this blog until his beloved FM finally play the likes of the NEC as a headlining act!!!

Thursday, 19 March 2015

HRH AOR 3 - Hafan Y Mor, Pwllheli 14th March 2015

So
after dawn broke and the revellers rose from their stupors, many didn’t even
sober up I suspect, the big news of the day was the backing tape saga. Everyone
had an opinion, and I’m a big HEAT fan (‘twas my melodic rock album of 2014),
but I’m vehemently against any form of added bonus content for want of a better
word. It will play out over the course of the coming days I guess…

So,
brekkie was had, coffee and tea was drunk at the excellent facilities that
HRH/Haven had to offer. Album browsing at the metal market(vinyl was bought)
and a bit more Doom was taken in – I’ve come to the decision that I don’t particularly
like Doom!

I
missed the first couple of songs by opening act Euphoria Audio. I was looking
forward to this UK outfit. They come across as the type of music that makes
your toes curl – similar to Daughtry, David Cook, Jonas Bros etc etc – but I personally
like this stuff. There’s shitloads of bands like this across the US that make a
good living, but not so many UK bands. It’s the type of music that middle age
women of a certain age lap up in droves. And some middle age men! But a friend
nailed it when she said that she wants to hear music that makes her stop a
conversation, turn around and watch the band. This was no such case. Euphoria
Audio have some decent enough songs, and a very good singer in Matt
Shirty (but there was very little stage presence – which showed when
guitarist Ben Lloyd had an issue and Shirty didn’t really know what to do with
the dead time). That said EA were enjoyable enough, went down reasonably well
considering the attendance was piss poor vs the same time the previous day. But,
if I could describe the experience in one word it would be ‘beige’.

Reachon the other hand literally exploded into life. They looked the part in the
true spirit of AOR/Hair Metal – a mass of hair, shapes being thrown, it was
like they have been watching hair bands of the 80s for their homework and
getting A grades (they all looked about 14!). They certainly are young guns in
the making and have much great chance of making it that in their ‘other’ job
with Adrenaline Rush. Their playing and confidence belied their very young
years, and what with an opening song like ‘You Called My Name’ they are on a
high trajectory to fame and hopefully some fortune as well. I have to admit
that live they are a different proposition to the recently released album, much
better in the flesh and growing with every passing gig. ‘Make Me Believe’, ‘Fortune
and Fame’, and ‘Coming Home’ are the better songs. For some reason the closing
song, ‘Black Lady’ is one of their finest, yet never made the album. Watch out
for these lads they are going far.

I’ve
seenWhite Widdowa couple of times now and have been disappointed with Jules
Millis’ vocals. This time was it was different, he seemed stronger than the
past, (there were a few minor issues) but he was much, much better than
previous. I suppose they are the band of the day (come to think of it, the
festival) to have a proper ‘widdly’ guitarist. I had to laugh when Jules took
the piss out of The Poodles when they said they had come a long way to be in
North Wales, “well try fucking Australia mate!’’ or words to that effect. That
makes it all the more special

that a band, not exactly rolling in it, is
prepared to travel half way around the World to perform. A few of the new songs
were chosen, and rightly so as ‘Caught In The Crossfire’, ‘Below The Belt’, and
‘Just Another Night’ are some of the gems from ‘Crossfire’. I’m guessing that
Jules is a big Aviator fan as they finished their set with the classic
‘Frontline’ and bloody good it was too. It was probably the best he sounded all
gig. Cracking stuff.

Eclipse
is one of the leading lights of melodic metal. In Eric Martensson they have a
great singer, guitarist, writer and producer, although his guitar tends to only
be rolled out for the odd song when performing for Eclipse. If you haven’t got
the new album ‘Armageddonize’ then where have you bloody well been. Most of the
performance was taken from what is likely to be many peoples album of 2015, and
the excellent ‘Bleed and Scream’. Eric is a great vocalist, and sometimes
Eclipse have little passages where they out-Whitesnake Whitesnake!! Similar to
Vega,

Eclipse are a very anthemic band, on this occasion the songs picked – ‘Wake
Me Up’, ‘Bleed & Scream’, ‘Aint Dead Yet’, ‘Battlegrounds’, ‘Blood Enemies’,
‘Stand On Your Feet’, etc etc, - it was like being twatted with a hammer for 50
minutes as Eclipse were RELENTLESS. It was a bombastic approach which ensured
maximum attack. My highlight was the guitar-off between Martensson and
Hermansson before the Jelly Roll-esque ‘Breakdown’, which is one of my fave
live tracks from ‘Armageddonize’. If you were lucky to catch them on their UK
tour either side of this event, all I can say is was that they were even better
than this performance, and that’s saying something. Erik Martensson is the
baby-faced assassin of melodic metal.

I
caught Crazy Lixxat last year’s inaugural Frontiers Festival in Milan where
they appeared first on the bill of day 3. Then they were OK to reasonable, now
just over 10 months later they have improved immensely which was proven by the
attendance in the arena for them. Again, Crazy Lixx were here to play mostly
from their recent album. They are more Sleaze than AOR, but that didn’t stop
them in releasing both barrels. Singer Danny Rexon announced that it was his
first time out with a guitar. I think the change from last years line up to now
has made things better and seemed tighter. More Motley Crue than Magnum, the
lads held the audience in the palm of their hands for the likes of the
excellent ‘Hell Raising Woman’, ‘Heroes Are Forever’ and ‘Outlaw’. Based on
this, I expect great things over the course of the next couple of years.

I
wasn’t too sure what to expect fromHouston. Certainly the audience didn’t
either as a good 30% had vacated for them. Well all I have to say is, more fool
them, as they missed a very stellar and polished performance. They weren’t
without their issues as Calle Hammar’s guitar broke a string, and didn’t come
equipped with a second guitar. The rambling’s from singer Hank Erix were
completely devoid of any interaction, but he more than made up for it in the
quality of his voice and for me was one of the best voices of the weekend.
Houston are one of the bands whose songs are in the true spirit of AOR, what
with the keyboard laden opener ‘Glory’, to the newer songs such as ‘Don’t Look
Back’, and ‘Standing On The Moon’. If not too careful, they could be seen as a
overblown cover band, and I like their own stuff better than the covers. That
said, the covers are true to the originals and are bloody great versions of
already excellent songs, specially ‘Runaway’ by Dakota. For closing song, ‘Return
My Heart’, both Hammar and Ma’Aoui jumped in the pit to interact with the crowd
and nearly gave the sedate North Walian security a slight arse twitch moment. It
was an excellent performance from yet another high flying Swedish band.

From
here on in we were getting to the sharp end of day 2. All of what’s left are 3 of
my all time faves and none of them disappointed. First up, Romeos Daughter.There were 4 pricks behind me who whined and moaned about everything, RD being
one of them before they had even stepped on the stage. Of course I know better!
And so did they come the end of the set. With Romeos Daughter theres no fuss, no attitudes, gimmicks etc. They don’t
need any of these things as they let the songs do the talking as they just ooze
quality. When you have 2 albums like they do in the debut and 'Delectable', it
takes some balls to ditch most of them and concentrate on music from ‘Alive’
and the

soon to be released ‘Spin’. It wasn’t a total abandonment as ‘Inside
Out’, ‘Cry Myself To Sleep’, ‘Wild Child’, and ‘Attracted To The Animal’ were
represented. One thing that RD have in their armoury is the very underrated
Craig Joiner. All eyes are directed at Leigh Matty for good reason, but Craig
is the superglue of the band. Not only that, the brand new songs, were pretty
damn good. ‘Radio’ in particular, is a massive slice of radio friendly rock
that is screaming to be played on Radio 2 when its released in April. The
ladies were poorly represented at HRH AOR, but Leigh Matty more than made up
with a classy performance. The upcoming tour with FM in May will be one tour that’s
hard to resist.

So,
ontoFM. They had been forced to cancel an earlier acoustic performance at HRH
AOR, but you would not have a Scooby Doo as to why when watching this full on
electric set. When FM is given 60-70mins to perform, this is where the magic
really happens as it’s a bombardment of classics with a capital ‘C’. Some of
the fillers of a normal set are replaced with heavy hitters from the last 30
years. With Jim Kirkpatrick on board, FM has become a heavier and rockier
composition – that shows with this setlist. Only the power ballad ‘Closer To Heaven’
represents FMs softer and lighter side tonight. The ‘guns blazing’ approach
works for the 21st Century version of FM. Since their reformation in
2007, FM are on a sweet a roll as anyone else that’s out there; their output is
consistently high; and when you have a singer in the mould of Steve Overland,
its hard not to bask in their supreme quality. The new song ‘Diggin’ Up The
Dirt’ is a belter, and, couple this with the heavier tunes such as ‘Tough Love’,
‘Wildside’, and ‘Crosstown Train’, and its one pearler after the other. The
biggest shout of the night is for their biggest song ‘That Girl’, and 30 years
later its still one of the best songs of FMs or any bugger else’s career. Catch
them in all their glory in April and May.

Night
Rangerhaven’t exactly been perennial visitors to these shores. It’s only the
last couple of years that an effort has been made. Jack Blades commented that
they have a five-year plan for the UK. Next year it will be 2 x gigs, year 3, 3
gigs, and so on - that is if Brad Gillis is still alive in five years time! Night Ranger show why they are headlining a
festival – 35 years after they started. They are consummate professionals, and
have probably played every weekend for the last 10 years. Night Ranger are as
polished as Mr Sheens/Windex (for US readers) testing laboratory. New to the
line up is Alice Coppers gunslinger Keri Kelli, and you know what, it feels
like he’s been with them for 20 years. Jack Blades is the main focal point, but
when Kelly Keagy comes to the fore it gives them even more presence –
especially as Keagy’s voice hasn’t diminished. Highlights for him in particular
are ‘Sentimental Street’, ‘Sister Christian’, and the bloody fantastic ‘Don’t
Live Here Anymore’. Blades moves around the stage with the energy on man half
his age, and what with his stage patter is an absolute joy to watch. I’m a fan
of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees, but I wouldn’t give a toss if Alice Cooper’s ‘Schools
Out’, Ozzys ‘Crazy Train’ or DYs ‘Comin Of Age’ or ‘High Enough’ were
represented. I’m sure Keagy would love to plug a solo song or two! That small
grip aside, NR are a fantastic proposition live – ‘Lay It On Me’, ‘Secret Of My
Success’, ‘Eddies…’ and the ultimate closer, ‘(You Can Still) Rock In America’.
Let’s just hope they stick to Blades 5 year plan, and play somewhere other than
London for a change in the future.

I
bow to HRH United team as AOR is a genre that’s never been the most popular.
They have a great home in Haven at Pwllheli, with fantastic facilities, and
hopefully another 10 years in the festival at least. Its up to the new wave to
drive it forward otherwise 90% of the bands will have retired by then. Here’s
to next year.